Bilan

An account of the groups to the left of the PCI, during WW2 by Arturo Peregalli. First published in 'Revolutionary History, Vol.5, No.4' ( Translated by Barbara Rossi and Doris Bornstein. It is based upon Peregalli’s 'Il Partito Comunista Internazionalista', and 'L’altra Resistenza: Il PCI e le opposizioni di sinistra in Italia, 1943–45', which first appeared as a series of fascicles in the 'Studi e Ricerche' series of the Centro Pietro Tresso (nos. 2, 4, 5, 8, 16, 17 and 21) and later as a full length book published by Graphos (Genoa 1991).

A series of articles by Jehan van den Hoven ('Mitchell') in 'Bilan' (the journal of the Italian communist left in exile in France and Belgium) on the period of transition to communism. These articles were first translated by the ICC.

Article from Bilan issue 34 (August - September 1936), issuing a powerful critique of the sacrifice of the Spanish working-class and revolution in the name of the war effort, the Popular Front and the Republic.

This article from Bilan, the journal of the Italian communist left in exile in France and Belgium, examines what they consider the disorienting and stifling effect on the proletarian movement, of co-operation with bourgeois forces (liberals and reformist-socialists) in the name of 'anti-fascism'. Bilan argue that the result of such collaboration is the moderation/liquidation of the working-class as a revolutionary force, the co-option of its organs of struggle, and the dissipation of the movement, ultimately taking the view that 'anti-fascism' is self-defeating.

A 2001 text summarizing the results of the research carried out by Agustín Guillamón for the Spanish journal, BALANCE, concerning the lessons of the Spanish Civil War in Catalonia, denying the existence of “dual power” in Catalonia in 1936, discussing the struggles of the CNT rank and file against militarization and in favor of socialization, emphasizing the revolutionary potential of the ubiquitous committees and their neutralization and eventual destruction due to a lack of coordination and centralization, and claiming that the proletarian revolution requires the destruction of the capitalist state and the creation of a centralized workers power based on workers councils.

Goldner assesses Bordiga's analysis of the nature of the 'socialist' countries, and the centrality of the agrarian question. This article originally appeared in 'Critique' #23, 1995 as 'Amadeo Bordiga, the agrarian question and the international revolutionary movement'.

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